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STATE OF THE UNION. 



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Copy 1 



SPEECH 




HON. ALFRED WELLS, OF NEW YORK, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 6, 1861. 



Tbe House having uiuli-r consideration tin? report from 
the select committee of tliirty-tliree — 
Mr. WELLS said: 

Mr. Speaker: I believe I feel the importance 
of this gietvt occasion. I tiiink no man born in 
this favored land, surrounded by all the blessings 
which attend our institutions, can possibly be in- 
different to the existing state of facts — can possi- 
bly see with unconcern State after State leave, so 
far as their action is concerned, this glorious Con- 
federacy, this Union fraught with its untold bless- 
ings, and of those which yet remain, see State 
after State, either by their Representatives on this 
floor, or through the action of their Legislatures 
or conventions, threaten soon to leave this Re- 
public; and, sir, in my estimation, that man can 
have but little patriotism who would not, for the 
sake of preserving our national Union and liber- 
ties, sacrifice life itself upon the altar of his coun- 
try. That man is little worthy of esteem who so 
values the few fleeting years that remain to him 
that he would save his dastard life at the cost of 
his country's welfare and his country's existence. 

Now, sir, I believe, if there is any issue from 
the present difiiculties which surround us, it is 
not to be found in the wisdom of statesmen, not 
to be found in the wisdom of man. The provi- 
dence of God alone can extricate us from a posi- 
tion from which it seems impossible to escape; 
for, sir, to my mind — and I have endeavored to 
look over the ground so far as I possibly could 
without passion and without prejudice — there is 
no possible escape from a dissolution of the 
Union. 

Mr. Speaker, if there is any escape, the begin- 
ning of the way that is to open up before us is to 
be iound in a change of the dispositions of the 
two sections of the Union. As wide apai't in 
opinion as the poles are asunder, it is impossible 
for us, occupying the opposite grounds on which 
we stand, ever to unite on a common basis until 
we begin to feel toward one another as brother 
should feel toward brother. Last night, sir, I saw 
published in the daily papers an account of the 
condition of f)np of the States of this Union, the 
youngest of the sister States, the last that has 



come within our family circle. I saw, by that 
statement, that fifty thousand human beings stand 
on the verge of starvation. This morning I en- 
deavored to gain the ear of the House, with the 
hope that we would follow the generous exam- 
ples which have been twice, at least, set us in the 
history of this Government. Once was >vhen, 
touched by the finger of the Almighty, tiie mount- 
ains smoked and the earth quaked. When the 
capital of the R,epublic of Venezuela, then just 
born into a national existence, was buried be- 
neath the tremblings of the earth, and ten thou- 
sand human beings were overwhelmed in the 
ruins of their habitations, then the great Republic 
of America stretched out her hand to the afilicted 
sister, and gave the needed bread. 

And again, sir, when that island, famous in 
the history of modern civilization, famous for its 
advocates of the rights of man, felt the blight 
which struck the staple production of its inhab- 
itants, and when its starving millions began to die 
within the cities' walls and in the thronged lanes 
of its populous districts, in the other end of this 
Capitol arose the Senator from Kentucky — the 
venerable Mr. Crittenden — and proposed that 
this Union should give $,500,000 to save the starving 
Irish men and women. That was seconded by 
the immortal Webster, and by the dauntless Cal- 
houn, then standing on the edge of the erave — his 
trumpet voice grown so feeble under tlie infirmi- 
ties of age that the reporters could scarce catch 
its tones. That gallant man of the gallant State 
of South Carolina proposed to aid, not Ireland 
only, but France also, which then stood trem- 
bling on the brink of anothcrfamine. I had hoped, 
sir, that now, when the wail of the women and the 
men, and the children of Kansas reached the ears 
of the members of this House, the) would, with 
one accord and with one voice, as brethren reach- 
ing out the hand to brethren, give a mite, a little 
mite, to save them from starvation. And, sir, 
had it been done, under the circumstances of 
the case, it would have done more, in the provi- 
dence of God, to save this Union, than all the 
speeches made on this floor; because, if the South, 
which had sent to the battle-fields of Kansas its 



\ 



armed meH to plant the institution of slavery- 
there; if the South, which had by overwhelm- 
ing numbers from the free States, been foiled in 
its purpose by the ballot-box and the bayonet; 
if the South, thus baffled and defeated, had, in 
its magnanimity, with all its generous impulses 
aroused, responded to the cry of distress from 
afflicted Kansas, and said, "These are still our 
brethren and our sisters; we will give them what 
we ought from our overflowing Treasury," the 
act would have touched the national heart, broke 
through the icy fetters of a selfishness that can 
see its own but not another's virtues, can feel 
its own but not another's woes, and thus inau- 
gurated that charity which can alone make vts 
bear with a brother's faults and errors, and make 
us seek, from genuine feeling of affection, a broth- 
er's good. 

Sir, our national Treasury does overflow with 
a people's wealth, though the vaults of the sub- 
Treasury may be empty. The Almighty has 
given us an abundant harvest. And though He 
■who sends down His rain and Hi.s sun upon the 
just and the unjust, has closed for a season the 
windows of the heavens, and refused to the farm- 
er's grain in Kansas its wonted increase, never 
before in the history of the country have the fields 
of other States yielded so ample a return to the 
labors of the husbandman. And, sir, I feel that 
the little pittance which I designed to ask for Kan- 
sas could have been givun without suftering tons, 
and without being liable to tlio.se constitutional 
objections which a charily to foreign nations 
would be likely to raise. 

I believe, sir, that the remedy for the existing 
evils is to be found, if found at all, not in the head, 
but the heart of the people. There is no nation 
on the face of this earth, so far as intellectual cul- 
ture is concerned, can compare with ours. But, 
sir, I regret to say that, while the mind is cul- 
tured to its highest capacity, those affections which 
really constitute the man, uj)on which alone gen- 
uine manhood can be built, have not received the 
nurture which they ought. If they had, we would 
not sec to-day the marshaling in hostile array of 
the armies of the North and the armies of the 
South; we would not have drums beating, sol- 
diers marching, and all the devilish enginery of 
war preparing for the fraternal strife; but in- 
stead, all would be striving to cultivate friendly 
relations by mutual acts of kindness and forbear- 
ance, and by the exercise of the broadest charity. 
All would be striving to remember that the men 
of the North and the men of the South are chil- 
dren of the same universal Father, who cares as 
much, and would have us care as much, for the 
man who lives south of Mason and Dixon's line 
as for the man who lives north of that line. If 
we strove so to imitate Him, and to pour out the 
affections of our hearts towards each other as He 
does towards all of us, we would soon bring to 
a peaceful termination the dreadful condition of 
affairs that now ]irevails throughout the country. I 

Sir, what would so touch the heart of the Amer- 
ican people as a free-will offering of this Congress.' 
A sudden pause in these angry debates for a free- 
will oflTering to the cause of humanity would make 
a common ground on which we could all plant our 



feet and stand solid as the hills. If, in the midst 

of warlike preparations, yielding lo a generous 
impulse, we should let the cry from Kansas turn 
the current of our thoughts into the channel of a 
fraternal love, who can tell how many springs 
would gush from American hearts, North and 
South, East and West, to swell that love into a 
mighty river, widening its fertilizing stream into 
a shoreless ocean .' Sir, not in vain, then, would 
the rains have been withheld from the prairies of 
Kansas; not in vain would the seed have shriv- 
eled in the parched ground, if the nation could 
gather in the richer harvest of brotherly affec- 
tions. 

It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, looking at it not 
from the heart but from the intellect, that it is an 
absolute moral imjiossibility for the North and 
South to unite in o))inion, standing upon the op- 
posite grounds which they occupy. The South 
says, as its ultimatum, " We must have the Ter- 
ritories of the Union in common; we must be 
allowed to go there and live there with the men, 
women, and children we hold as property, or you 
exclude us from the common soil purchased by the 
common blood and treasure of the nation; on no 
other terms can we live with you as equals, and we 
cannot submit to live with you except as equals." 
They say to the North, "You know nothing about 
the institution of slavery ; you think of it as a negro 
driven to tlie cotton-field under the overseer's lash , 
with the blood dripping from his back; you think 
of it as man and wife separated from each other, 
and denied the privileges of the social circle. 
You think of it as children in their tender years, 
torn from their fathers' arms and their mothers' 
embrace. Come down into o\ir cities and towns, 
and you will find that we are fathers to our slaves; 
that we care for them in sickness and provide for 
them in old age; that negro men and women live 
among us united by religious ceremonies, sur- 
rounded by their families, with homes Substan- 
tially their own; and that, considering the savage 
and degraded condition of their ancestors in the 
wilds of Africa, they have made rapid strides in 
mental, moral, and religious growth. Letusalone; 
still the insane excitement in your northern States 
about the condition of our slaves, about whose 
condition you know little, and enable us to relax 
our hand upon them, and we will agitate the ques- 
tion among ourselves, wisely, moderately, how 
we can best ameliorate their condition and elevate 
them, consistently with their own safety. Your 
interference with our institution forces us into its 
defense; the efforts you blindly make to liberate 
our slaves compels us to rivet their chains. More 
than a generation ago, Virginia, now in arms in 
defense of slavery, day after day, in the most per- 
fect freedom of dubate, discussed the emancipation 
of her slaves, and the measure was lost by a single 
vote. If your northern free labor possesses those 
advantages you claim for it, and brings with it 
the train of individual and national blessings you 
would make us believe, enable us to see by your 
example at home that our true interest lies in its 
introduction with us." 

Mr. Speaker, I know that in all this, much, per- 
haps the main portion, of the picture is true; and 
I am willing to admit that, to a great extent, the 



picture we draw of your institutions is distorted 
and untrue. 

Perhaps we iiave overlooked tiie virtues and 
advantages in your southern institutions, while the 
faults and blemishes have stood out prominently 
to view, even as tlie eye passes unnoticed the fer- 
tile pUiins and valleys that lie nearest us, to gaze 
upon the bleak and desolate mountains of granite 
that fringe the distance. Yet our southern breth- 
ren cannot deny that the relation between master 
and slave, while frequeatly one of affection upon 
the part of the laborer to the employer, is often 
one of great dependence, is often one in which the 
tyranny of the master is exercised over the ser- 
vility of the slave. I know that no southern slave- 
holder, no humane and tender-hearted slaveholder, 
striving to perform his duty to all the members 
of that society in which Providence has placed 
him, according to the light afforded him from an 
age of Christian civilization, can rise upon this 
floor and say that never, in his experience, has 
he known acts of inhumanity, the natural out- 
birth of the institution of slavery, to be committed 
by the slaveholder on his slave, which have gone 
unwhipped of justice. Such a slaveholder must 
grieve with his whole heart that the marriage re- 
lation, as a legal institution,is not consistent with 
the condition of a slave. As he looks upon his 
own family circle, the tender and loving wife, the 
brave and free sons, the chaste and beautiful 
daughters, and feels that all which men strive for, 
wealth, pleasure, fame, usefulness, is for the sake 
of that dear home; feels that with that circle un- 
broken he can buffet the trials and bear the bur- 
dens of life with a brave, unrepining heart; and 
that without those social ties wealth is a mockery, 
pleasure a mirage, fame a bubble, and usefulness 
Itself a burden, he must needs regret that like 
hopes and like aspirations are not, cannot be, the 
lot of his slaves. 

Sir, that Christain slaveholder who, for long 
years, has striven to grow into the image of his 
Maker; who, profoundly impressed with his re- 
sponsibilities to God and his fellow-man, has sur- 
rendered his life to his Maker, has taken up his 
cross daily and followed Him; who has made the 
natural and the sensual faculties of his nature sub- 
ordinate to his spiritual; and who has so found 
that the true life which alone is worth living, is a 
lifeof benefice nee, a life of usefulness, a life which, 
sunlike, strews the earth with flowers, loads the 
trees with fruits, fills the air with perfume, and 
transmutes the dead earth into an Eden — such a 
man must needs see and grieve over those, whether 
white or black, free or bond, who still lie im- 
mersed in the sensual stye. And such a slave- 
holder, from experimental knowledge, must know 
that in the exercise of his freedom alone can man 
rise above the natural and sensual life into which 
he is born. I do no not mean to say, sir, that a 
slave cannot thus rise. I know he can; but what I 
mean to assert is, that the obstacles to his eleva- 
tion are multiplied and strengthened by the sur- 
roundings of his servile state. 

We are a nation of Christians. We acknowl- 
edge Christ as our leader, as the great exemplar, 
after whom it is our aim to fashion our lives. 
The Bible is the word of Grod, so acknowledged. 



in the main, by all. It is believed to be a special 
revelation of God's will to man — a written law, 
adapted to all the varied circumstances of life, and 
embracing within the range of its teachings all 
classes, conditions, and orders of society. AH 
over the land rise stately structures, on which 
the wealth of nations has been lavished, where 
all classes of community assemble to hear the 
word of God read, to praise Him with musicand 
solemn song, and bend the knee and the spirit in 
humble supplication and adoration to Him as the 
universal Father, whose love is over all, whose 
wisdom guides and illumines all, and whose om- 
nipotence energizes the faculties of all. From 
earliest infancy our children lisp the prayer which 
He taught his Disciples — that grand and loving 
epitome of the heart's adoration and supplication, 
which it has been our privilege to hear during 
each day of this Congress. The Sunday schools 
are thronged with our youth, where the tender 
minds are taught the precepts of the decalogue ; and 
where thegohlen rule by which all the actions, the 
thoughts, and the affections of their future lives 
are to be measured, is written on their hearts. 

Our Christianity is the central sun of our civ- 
ilization. Its beams penetrated the Egyptian 
darkness of the middle ages, and lifted that dusky 
vail which so long rested like an incubus ujjon the 
European mind; and from thence hitherto, with 
augmented heat and light, it has scattered its 
beams of life and intelligence throughout the world. 
Not only the arts and sciences, not only forms 
of beauty and of use have sprung into life with 
the profuseness of a tropical vegetation, but one 
by one the great principles of right and wrong 
have been crystallized into codes and constitutions 
and laws, which, like the diamond, receive and 
hold and radiate the focalized beams of the civiliza- 
tion of the past and the present, and light up with 
constantly increasing splendor the pathway of 
the future. 

The common lawof England, that corner-stone 
of our political structures, is but an aggregation 
of the truths of Christianity as applied to the 
occurrences of life; wherever, in its chrystalline 
structure, a speck or flaw or cloud is to be seen, 
it is because the truths of Christianity have been 
misunderstood or misapplied. The constitution 
of England, that shadowy but firm structure which 
embraces the body-politic of Great Britain, is but 
a concrete of Christian principles applied to Gov- 
ernment; and wherever a shaft totters, or a col- 
umn crumbles, it is because of the barbarian ele- 
ments which have been unwisely incorporated in 
the structure. The law of nations, which has 
substituted the pursuitsof commerce for the trade 
of the pirate, the arbitrament of peaceful tribunals 
for the wager of battle, which has whitened the 
seaswith canvas, garnished the shores with cities, 
and burdened the land with plenty, is but a beam 
from the sun of Christianity, even now broken 

I and dimmed by the interposing clouds of a lin- 

j gcring barbarianism. 

j Our republican Constitution, the admiration of 

I the world, which for three quarters of a century 
has performed its functions almost without ajar, 
derives all its power from the Christian principles 

• it embodies. 



Now, sir, the northern religious man believes 
the condition of the slave to be at war with the 
principles of Christianity and with the precepts 
of the Bible. Though the southern man, edu- 
cated from infancy in its midst, may look upon the 
institution as patriarchal, as sanctioned by the 
precepts and the practices of patriarchs and kings, 
as Heaven-descended and Bible-sanctioned, yet 
no amount of logic, no cunning fence of argument, 
can move the northern religious mind from its 
positions. The northern religious mind looks, 
and will continue to look, upon your institution ' 
as Bible-denovmced and Heaven-accursed; and no j 
law, no punishment, no muzzling of the press, j 
no suppression of discussions, no new alien and j 
sedition laws, can touch its settled convictions, j 
Call it bigotry, fanaticism — call it what you will, 
it is an incorrigible opinion, which can never be I 
moved. And yet, sir, from one wiio so thought 1 
of slavery, I have heard as pure and heartfelt a : 
petition go up to the throne of God for the master 
as for the slave; and the master held up before 
the throne of mercy not as a tyrant, or as a fiend, 
but as a brother man; no worse, no better, than j 
the humble disciple from whose lips gushed the | 
supplications of a heart overflowing with love to 1 
all men. Sir, that man who so feels would suffer ; 
the fires of the stake rather than extend your in- j 
stitution by any act of liis; and yet I doubt not 
that man would look to the eradication of slavery ; 
among yourselves only through the .silent but 
effective operations of that Gospel which brings 
peace on earth and good will to men. 

Now, sir, so believing, the northern man says: 
" Slavery is an institution which, from the begin- 
ning of t his Government up to the present moment, 
and long l)efore this Government was formed, was 
recognized by the law of England to l)e local in its 
character, deriving its whole force from the local 
and municipal law; an institution whose validity^ 
whose sanction, exists alone by virtue of the law of 
the State or Territory in which the slave lives." 
Again .our northern men, as they look over the his- 
tory of the countrjj^, see that, among the boldest 
Abolitionists of the early day — before the popular 
mind had become so healed that it could not listen 
to the voice of humanity in behalf of the negro — 
were such men as Jefferson, Washington, Frank- 
lin, and Henry; and when they read the debates of 
our national convention, they see, or think they 
see, that the principles of the Declaration of Inde- 

Eendence, " that all men are created equal," and 
ave certain " inalienable rights," which are enu- 
merated — I say they see these principles embodied 
in the Constitution of the country. They see, 
indeed, that the southern negro has not the right 
to vote; yet he is represented upon the floor of 
this House. They know that, for every five ne- 
groes who live in the South, three of them are 
represented, the same as three free men, in tliis 
Hall. They know that there is a provision in 
the Constitution that, when a slave escapes from 
his master into a free State, he cannot be recog- 
nized as free by the laws of that State, but must 
be returned to the person to whom his labor be- 
longed; and this provision they believe to be a 
recognition in the Constitution that slavery is local; 
and, but for this fugitive-from-lai)or provision, 



could have no existence beyond the law of the 
State. They know, too, that there was a pro- 
vision in that Constitution that, in twenty years 
after it went into effect, a traflic which, 1 believe, 
the South, as well as the North, still recognize 
as piratical and infernal, was to be abolished; 
and that, even before that period had elapsed, 
it was abolished. This, too, the North considers 
another evidence of the local character of slavery, 
inasmuch as, without this restriction, Congress, 
under- its power over commerce, could have at 
once stopped the increase of slaves by means of 
the slave trade. 

Allow me to say, Mr. Speaker, that, though I 
refer to the Chicago platform, I care no more 
about it than I do about the Breckinridge platform, 
except so far as I believe it to express principles 
which 1 think it my duty to support. If the Chi- 
cago platform sustains the principles which I up- 
hold, I maintain and defend it; if it does not, I spit 
upon it and trample it under my feet. The Chi- 
cago platform says that the maintenance of the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence are 
essential to the perpetuity of Republican institu- 
tions. The Cliicago platforrw says that the nor- 
mal condition of a Territory is one of freedom, 
and not slavery. It recognizes, in effect, that be- 
fore the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted, our fathers abolished slavery in all the 
Territories of the United States; that when this 
glorious Republic first went into operation, no 
slave soil outside of the slave States existed in the 
Union; that the policy of our fathers was, that 
slavery should ultimately be abolished by the 
slave States, because they believed it a moral, 
social, and political evil, entailed upon them by 
the cupidity of British merchants. Washington, 
as we well know, said there was no man who de- 
sired more than he to see slavery abolished by 
law; and Benjamin Franklin declared, in a peti- 
tion which he presented to this body, I believe, 
that the Congress of the United States ought to 
step to the very verge of the Constitution in order 
to abolish it. 

Again: the Chicago platform says that the nor- 
mal condition of a Territory is that of freedom: 
and what further does it say.' That it is the duty 
of Congress, whenever occasion requires it, to 
prohibit the introduction of slavery into the Ter- 
ritories of the Union, and denies the authority of 
Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, or of any 
individual, to give legal existence to slavery in 
any Territory of the United States. 

Now, I am confident the South will not say to 
the North, " give up your principle." I have 
heard no man make such a requirement; yet the 
South says to us: " You surrender no principle 
by giving up to slavery all the territory south of 
30° 30', and protecting slavery there by congres- 
sional or constitutional enactments." 

Now, I propose to show that the majority of 
thecommitteeof thirty-three asks the Republicans 
of the North to give up a principle, and to give 
up the Chicago platform, as I understand it. Al- 
low me to say just here, that I have, in common 
with probably every gentleman upon this floor^ 
received repeated communications from my con- 
stituents; but in no instance, in no single instance. 



have they for one moment wavered in their sup- 
port and maintenance of tlieCliicago platform. In 
every instance have they declared it to be their con- 
viction that the Republicans in Congress should, 
at all hazards, adhere to their principles in refer- 
ence to slavery in the Territories, as announced 
in the Chicago platform. 

I have believed, from the beginning of this dis- 
cussion until now, that, as fair and honest men, 
dealing justly by our brethren in the South, it was 
the bounden duly of the Republicans to say to 
them: "Gentlemen, the opinion of our constitu- 
ents in reference to slavery in the Territories is, 
that it ought not to be established there, and we 
understand the Chicago platform to mean that it 
is the duty of Congress to prevent by legislation, 
when it is necessary, the introduction of slavery 
in the Territories; we mean to represent our con- 
stituents on this floor; we mean that you shall 
know what we intend to do, if we have the power. 
Not, sir, that I am not anxious for compromise; 
but it is impossible for us to compromise upon 
the basis demanded by us, without a disgraceful 
surrender of principle. I voted against the rais- 
ing of this select committee of thirty-three. I be- 
lieved that it could never reconcile opinions which 
are so diametrically opposed to each other; and I 
believe so still. 

Mr. Speaker, the majority of that committee 
propose, in effect, to admit the Territories of New 
Mexico and Arizona as slave States. Let the 
country understand that. North and South, and 
meet it fully and squarely. 

By the law of 1850, the compromise measures, 
which I never subscribed to, but always opposed, 
it was provided that the institution of slavery 
might go into the Territory of New Mexico; and 
the preamble of this report states that whereas, 
by that law, the institution of slavery has already 
been legalized in the Territories of New Mexico 
and Arizona; therefore resolved, that the said Ter- 
ritories be formed into a State, and admitted with 
such constitution as the people there shall estab- 
lish for themselves, provided it is republican in 
form, according to the principles upon which the 
other States have been admitted. I say, then, 
stripped of all pretense and laid bare to the gaze, 
the proposition of the majority of the committee 
is no more and no less than that the Territories 
of New Mexico and Arizona shall be admitted 
with slavery implanted in their constitutions by 
law. As an honest man, believing, as I do, that 
the institution of slavery is repugnant to the prin- 
ciples upon which our Constitution and our Gov- 
ernmentrest,! never will vote for a measure which 
I believe saps the foundation stone upon which 
the whole structure is erected. All other ques- 
tions are of little consequence; whether slavery is 
abolished in the District of Columbia for the next 
ten, or twenty, or a hundred years, is a matter 
comparatively of little importance. 

But, Mr. Speaker, it is a different thing when 
we propose to nationalize slavery by making all 
territory south of 36° 30' a State, with or without 
slavery, as its constitution may provide, ignoring 
the fact that slavery is now spread over New 
Mexico by virtue of the territorial law, not only 
African slavery in its most objectionable form, 



but peon slavery, which embraces whites as well 
as blacks, citizens as well as those who, under 
the decision of the Supreme Court, are entitled to 
no rights which a while man is bound to respect. 
When we thus admit New Mexico, without first 
purging it of slavery and peonage, both of which 
we have the unquestioned right to prevent the 
Territorial Legislature from establishing — when 
we thus sanction the act of a Territorial Legisla- 
ture making free territory slave, we nationalize 
slavery, we recognize it as property; wo fail to 
exercise the twofold power which Congress has, 
first, to repeal the territorial law; second, to re- 
fuse to admit a slave State, by which the further 
extension of slavery may be prevented. We make 
every man in this Union guilty of extending sla- 
very. And, sir, it is no answer to say, that from 
l850 until now, with the full power to carry sla- 
very there, but twenty-four slaves have been car- 
ried there. It is no answer to say that the parched 
plains of New Mexico are unfilled to slave labor; 
no answer to say that God has established the 
law of freedom over those Territories more ef- 
fectual than human codes. Sir, I cannot forget 
that Indiana, when aTerritory, repeatedly applied 
to Congress for permission to hold slaves, nor the 
noble response of Virginia's eccentric but talented 
and patriotic statesman. Sir, I cannot forget that 
1 in that mighty empire which throws its arms 
around the Arctic ocean , slavery has existed in its 
[worst forms from time immemorial, and that our 
', own ancestors, the villeins of merry England , were 
i chattel slaves; nor can I forget that, unknown in 
name, but existing in fact, slavery has ever gone 
and flourished, too, unless the free hearts of the 
' people have erected a barrier of law to prevent 
I Its ingress. Nor can I forget that even our own 
African slavery has been pronounced by the best, 
the ablest, and the most eloquent of southern 
I statesmen, glaringly inconsistent with the princi- 
ples of liberty and equality which gave birth to 
our Revolution, and out of which our Constitu- 
tion and laws have grown. 

Plant slavery in New Mexico and Arizona. Let 
1 it be forever in contact with the fertile cotton-fields 
I of Texas, and with those other fields which the 
chairman of the committee of thirty-three has so 
logically shown to be capable of sustaining sixty 
million slaves — nearly twice the present popula- 
tion of the United States — and who can tell what 
will be the future destiny of that vast Territory, 
large enough to make twenty-four States the size 
of Massachusetts. As the rocks and mountains of 
New England, its granite, and its ice, have been 
made to sustain a ^ense population, who knows 
what people may yet swarm over even the sterile 
plains of New Mexico? Who knows what new 
arts, what new appliances, what unimagined dis- 
coveries may convert the desert into a garden.' 
Sir, I have seen the sand-hills of a southern farm, 
where even the stunted pine would scarcely thrive, 
converted into luxuriant clover-fields by the en- 
terprise and industry of Yankee farmers; and 
sleek and well-fed herds grazing where the prickly 
pear was before the chief vegetable. May not 
the same industry and skill that have reclaimed the 
plains of Holland from the waters, and which 
gather now the vintage from the mountains of 



6 



Switzerland, yet give fertility to the plains and 
mountains of New Mexico and Arizona? And 
shall we sanction slavery there now by congres- 
sional action, or by constitutional guarantees' 

When I heard the gentleman from Virginia, 
[Mr. MiLLsox,] who — rising above his surround- 
ings and the position of his party, made to my 
mind a glorious Union speech — state that the two 

Earties of the North and the South had fought, and j 
ad both won and both been conquered; that the 
North had substantially excluded slavery from , 
the Territories, and the South had established the j 
principle announced by the Dred Scott decision 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, I dif- 1 
fered witli him. I would, sir, rather have the 
acorn, folded upas it is in its little shell, than the i 
mighty oak that gave it birth, as it stands blasted j 
by the lightning stroke; for the acorn will make i 
oaks upon oaks and clothe the world in forests. 
So, sir, I would rather establish one principle, one 
abstraction, one truth, than to have the aggrc- : 
gated facts of the universe in my favor; because 
the truth, the ]irinciple, the abstraction, will over- 
throw everything that stands in its way. When 
the great Teacher of the Christian religion taught 
God is love, and told his Disciples to love one 
another, it was a mere abstraction ; but, sir, it has 
revolutionized the world; given birth to arts and 
sciences; founded and perpetuated free institutions. 
Establish the abstraction that we should love ; 
one another, and bring it into daily practice, and 
it will root out every evil, either in the individual 
man or in the body--politic. I would rather have j 
every foot of the Territories of the United States, j 
north as well as south, covered with slavery, than j 
to have established the principle that man can 
hold property in man under the provisions of the 
Constitution of the United States. Abstractions, ' 
Mr. Speaker, are more deadly than cannon balls. 
They will reach where bomb-shells cannot touch. 
Give me the abstraction, and you may take the 
reality. That is the reason the Republican party 
declares, in substance, that it will not abide by 
the decision of the Supreme Court of the United j 
States. It is the principle,the abstraction, which it 
wars against — not against the court, nor the case i 
it decided — but it is tne principle which is to meas- 
ure and decide all other cases that we repudiate 
and condemn. As a lawyer by profession, and 
having had the honor to hold a humble j)Iace 1 
upon the bench, tiierc is no man who reveres more 
than I do the judicial character, or who will go i 
further to give all the force it is entitled to to the 
judicial decision. But I may say here, as I un- 
derstand the principles of our Government, that 
it will never do to declare a judicial decision can 
infringe a principle of liberty. Pile decision upon 
decision, in the language of the courts of the Uni- 
ted Slates themselves, in a matter "concerning 
the liberties of the citizens, precedent is not to be ' 
regarded." 

The principle of the Dred Scott decision, which 
is claimed on the part of the South, is that man 
may hold property in man under the Constitution 
of the United States in the Territories of the Uni- 
ted States. It is either right or wrong. If it be 
right. I hold it should stand eternal as the hills; 
and if wrong, vanish like tlic mists of morning 



before the sunbeams of truth. Tell me that the 
decision of a Jeffreys, a tyrant upon the bench, 
shall abide through all coming time ! It is against 
all reason, as well as against all liberty. I do not 
understand, however, that the Dred Scott decision 
is, in point of fact, what it is claimed to be on the 
part of the South; but I do understand that it 
substantially establishes that principle so far as 
the opinions of a majority of the members of that 
court can establish it. 1 say for one, that the 
Republican party — make use of it, secessionists, 
if you can; for it is true, you are entitled to it — 
I say, sir, that the Republican party is planted in 
opposition to that decision; and so sure as the 
suif rises and sets, that principle never can be 
established in this country. Come Union or dis- 
union, come peace or war, never, never, never 
will a true Republican abandon that which he 
believes underlies our free institutions. 

Anybody who will read the resolutions adopted 
at Chicago will see that the Republican party is 
planted upon another principle, which, if under- 
stood and disseminated at the South, would, I 
think, crush secession, and uplift once more upon 
Fort Moultrie the stars and stripes — and that is, 
non-interference with the institution of slavery in 
the States where it now exists. The South is 
thus assured of all that the Constitution grants 
them. 

Mr. Speaker, I am not disposed to discuss 
whether South Carolina, or any of the cotton 
States or border States, have a right to leave the 
Union. I believe that government is derived from 
the consent of the governed. I believe that the 
right of revolution is as essential to a republican 
Government as any other set out in the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Were I an officer in the 
United States Navy or Army, and my State se- 
ceded, I would not hesitate for a moment to throw 
up my commission, and return to the ranks of 
my people. 

That is the position that I should occupy. I 
am loyal to my State. I am standing with my 
fellow-countrymen, with whom I was reared and 
educated, with whom all my feelings, with whom 
all my principles, are associated. Neither will I 
discuss that other question: which is the strongest, 
the North or the South? I look upon it as mere 
braggadocio; and of all the occupations which 
men pursue, I think that of the braggart is the 
meanest and the smallest. As was well said by 
the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Harris] to- 
day, "the race is not always to the swift, nor 
the battle to the strong." I depend, sir, for the 
strength of the North, upon the princi})les which 
it advocates; and if they be right, I do not fear, if 
occasion requires it, to submit our cause to the 
God of battles. But, sir, I conceive such a con- 
tingency to be entirely out of the question. Who 
is going to fire the first gun ? Who is going to 
put the pistol to his brother's breast? Who is 
going to make the first home desolate? Who is 
going first to spread sorrow and agony in the 
breasts of women and children? Who is going 
to place in hostile array, not merely in position 
but in act, the tv/o parts of this great Confeder- 
acy ? Who dreams that in a struggle such as that 
which would take place between the North and 



the South, a single battle-field will decide the 
issue? Tlie wars of the houses of York and Lan- 
caster will pale into insi2;nificance — the battles 
that desolated the fairest fields of Europe for cen- 
turies will become insignificant in comparison. 
We, when we had but three million people, 
threw down the gage of battle to the powerful 
empire of Great Britain. We had then only few 
ships and few soldiers, without arms, and almost 
bankrupt; yet we came through the war of the 
Revolution victorious — not a star erased, not a 
stripe defaced. And will it be said that the eight 
million of the South cannot defend their fire- 
sides, their altars and their homes, against the 
eighteen million of the North? I have not a mo- 
ment's doubt about it — not a moment's. 

It seems to me that the poorest argument that 
could possibly be presented, is this idea that we 
can conquer the South by force of arms on the 
field of battle. As a citizen of the great State of 
New York, I will, in defense of her rights, vote 
men and money, and send my children into the 
battle-field , and even — which God grant may never 
happen — imbrue my hands in the blood of a 
brother. While I see that dread alternative before 
me, I never can give up the conviction of my mind 
that it would be brutal and inliuman butchery. 
No, sir; loving free institutions as I do; believing, 
as I do, that all men are created equal; that before 
the eyes of the just God the poor man is as high 
as the rich, anil the negro as the white, alone, 
alone though it be, I hesitate not to make the 
assertion, that I believe that, when the immortal 
sjiirit of man is stripped of its tenement of clay, 
and stands before the throne of the Almighty, the 
master and slave will be measured, not by the 
color of their skin or the crisp of their hair, but 
by the affections of the heart and the intelligence 
of the soul, and the virtue of the life; believing, 
as I do, that all men are equal, I would rather 
make a peaceful division than shed a drop of blood. 
I would rather see this Ca|)itol crumble into dust 
than see a single human soul lost. Feeling and 
thinking so, I have no fear for principles. If I 
were disposed to enter the field of imagination and 
picture to myself the future of the North, grounded 
as it is on free institutions, with free colleges in 
every State, with free schools in every mile square, 
with the homes of educated men covering every 
hill-top and every valley, with a hardy yeomanry 
who are not ashamed or afraid of work, believing 
that God gave the hand to toil, the head to think, 
the heart to feel, I should have no fear for the fu- 
ture of the North. I would hope that the future 
of the South might be as glorious, as prosper- 
ous, and as happy as the future of the North; 
and, sir, had I the power — which I have not — 
I would pursue no policy towards our brethren 
of the South other than what necessity required. 
If they plant their cannon at the mouth of the 
Mississippi, and attempt to make tributary to 
them the great States that lie in the valley of the 
Mississippi, I would say to them first, in tones 
of respectful expostulation, "Give us the free 
navigation of our rivers;" and if they refused that, 
I would not hew my way to the seaboard, but I 
would plant my ships at the mouth of the river, 
and I would carry coercion — if you choose to call 



it so — no further than was absolutely necessary 
to protect the vital interests of the North. I would 
almost say to South Carolina, " Rather than shed 
blood, I will even surrender the fort over which 
alone the flag of the Union now floats." I feel, sir, 
that no ignominy has been castujion our Republic 
by all that South Carolina has done. Were she a 
foreign State, I should feel different; but though 
erring, she is still a sister State; and I remember, 
sir, her Sumter. I rpmembcr her Marion and his 
men. I remember him who, of all her statesmen, 
I most esteemed when he was in his glory, (John 
C. Calhoun,) mistaken as I believe him to have 
been. I remember him, and I would treat South 
Carolina as, in the Bible, the father treated the 
prodigal son. Let her go. I would use no more 
force against her than is absolutely necessary for 
self-preservation and the protection of the great 
interests of the country. I would let time work 
its efl'ects upon her. I would Vait until she got 
hungry, and then I would give her bread. I 
would wait until she got naked, and then I would 
clothe her. And if she ever did come back, I 
would run to meet her halfway, and throw my 
arms around her, and call upon my servants to 
kill the flitted kid and make music and festival 
because the lost one had returned. And, if it 
becomes necessary to sink ships in her harbor 
and shut up her port, when she comes back into 
this great family of States, I will be the first to vote 
appropriations for their removal. While she and 
the cotton States remain out, I would have our 
flag wave, as I saw it waving above these gas- 
lights to-night, with no star erased, in the hope 
that at last even South Carolina will again return. 
I would not give that hope up, and we need never 
give itrtjp, until blood is shed. 

Then, when the day of passion begins its rule, 
God only knows where it will stop. Sir, I shud- 
der at the thought. I have looked upon my fate 
as most blessed, not for the individual benefits 
which I enjoy, but for the heritage of freedom 
and civilization, which I expected to hand down 
to my children. God only knows what the con- 
dition of our country will be if our hands are 
imbrued in one another's blood. I say to the 
South: Peace! wait; shed not blood. Let not 
these cannon that run along our streets send forth 
their showers of grape and canister, as at Buena 
Vista and Cerro Gordo and Chepultepec. Let not 
the iron hail rattle among the bones of our fellow- 
men. Let every man feel that in his hands, on 
his heart, on his mind, depend, perhaps, not only 
the lives of millions of men, but the liberties and 
the happiness of countless millions. If this na- 
tion should be plunged into civil war, when may 
we hope again to rear such another temple as this 
to the goddess of Liberty? I hope yet, sir, to see 
the time when the highest stone will be put upon 
the dome of this proud Capitol. I hope yet to 
see the day when the bronze image of that goddess 
of Liberty, for whom we fought in the days of 
the Revolution, will stand triumphant upon its 
summit. 

Mr. Speaker, I had intended to cite the opin- 
ions of statesmen of North Carolina during the 
debate on the adoption of the national Constitu- 
tion in the convention of that Slate, in which, at 



8 



that early day, the principle of coercion was ad- 
vocated and sustained. I had intended, also, to 
show, as briefly as I could, that the present agita- 
tion of the South for the introduction of slavery 
into all the Territories, under the Constitution of 
the United States, was commenced in 1847, by the 



introduction of a resolution by John C. Calhoun; 
and that, prior to that time, such a right had never 
been demanded; but I see that the time allotted to 
me has nearly expired, and it would be impossible 
for me to present my views upon that subject as 
fully as 1 would desire. 



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